Before we think specifically about mission history, it’s important to get our bearings: why is history important? How do we interpret it, so that it speaks to us today? All Christians should have a strong sense of history since their identity has been forged out of historical events, even if those events, for Anglicans for example, were often politically very ambiguous and even embarrassing. But that is just as true of all history, and no less true of the history which shaped the people of God in Scripture! That was also sometimes very ambiguous and embarrassing. Biblical faith is itself a historical faith, and God reveals himself through its story. As we interpret the past we try to understand what God has been doing in history and therefore how he is at work today. If we believe that the Lord of history was in providential control of past events to fulfil his missio Dei mission purposes, so we trust that 'God is working His purpose out' today, even through the tortuous complexity of human affairs.